From German patent specification Nos. 2 363 563 and its addition 2 447 682 as well as corresponding other specifications, e.g. GB No. 1 471 158, it is known to close artificial intestinal openings with a magnetic plug held by a ring magnet surgically implanted around the portion of the intestine adjacent the surface of the body. The tightening against unintended discharge of intestinal contents is ensured between a plate-shaped part of the plug and the skin, which necessitates a rather strong magnet action which in many cases is uncomfortable and in adverse cases may cause some tissue necrotization. Closures of this type are not suitable for very fat patients, for patients having varying weight and for patients in which the outer part of the intestine is oblique relative the skin surface because in these cases there are big difficulties in rendering the closure tight.
Another type of closure has therefore been developed, viz. a closing plug of a suitable soft, possibly weakly elastic material to be inserted into the part of the intestinal duct in question adjacent the body surface. An example of such a closure is known from German OL No. 27 17 608 and consists of a magnet or surrounded by a tampon-like material which is expansible by the insertion into the intestinal duct or the anus, i.e. meant for both an incontinent natural anus and for ostomies. As the expansible material materials are proposed which expand under the influence of heat or moisture, e.g. cellulosic materials of largely the same kinds as those used in catamenial tampons. The core of magnetic material or the magnet cooperates with a ring magnet implanted in the tissue surrounding the outer of the intestine. An analogous closure without magnetic holding means described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,009 according to which a closing tampon for an incontinent natural or an artificial intestinal opening consists of an elongated, substantially cylindrical body of a cellular material being non-homogenous in the longitudinal direction, viz. formed of longitudinally aligned parts having different radial expansion properties when wetted, a first and a third section having high expansion characteristics when wetted and being separated by an intermediate section having lesser expansion characteristics when wetted. A holding ring of non expanding material is surgically implanted around the intestinal opening, and in use the second section of the tampon is situated within this ring.
A further representative of this type of closure means is described in German OL No. 27 17 607. It has similar magnetic holding means as the closure according to DE No. 27 17 608 but the magnetic core is surrounded by a soft elastic, radially compressible material such as a foam plastic and that material is the proper closure means.
None of these more or less tampon-like materials have gained a use worth while mentioning. This is supposed first and foremost to be due to the fact that the proper principle of closing depends upon the absorption of liquid into cellulosic material or foam material of fundamentally the same kind as is used in catamenial tampons, and that the absorption of liquid in these is not always so rapid as to avoid leakage in the first time after the insertion. The pressure against the intestinal wall is low and the tightening consequently often unsatisfactory. In cases where the tampons before the insertion have so large a diameter that the tightening actually is obtained because of the shape of the tampon, the insertion as a rule will be difficult because a compression has to take place, and this may be accompanied by discomfort or pain and risk of damaging the intestinal wall because the surface of the tampons is not smooth.
A closure means of which the tightening effect depends upon absorption of liquid into a largely unelastic material moreover is not very suitable for intestinal closures where a pressure behind it, caused i.a. by intestinal gas, will tend to expel the closure or allow not only intestinal gas but also other contents of the intestine to bypass the closure means, between that and the intestinal wall.